Building a diversified hyper-casual studio during the pandemic

What the talk is about

Serhii Komar describes how the French hyper-casual publisher Homa Games set up a Ukrainian studio, working remotely, within a few months during the pandemic. He covers hiring: self-run candidate screening, test tasks, technical interviews and a separate culture interview that values respect for colleagues and a love of hyper-casual games; a portfolio matters more than formal seniority. The production process uses five-day sprints, one prototype per sprint, a metrics test and a review of why it failed; nearly all prototypes are shut down. Principles include an eight-hour day without overtime, transparency, team ownership of results and light documentation. In Q&A he explains how ideas are collected and rated. Useful for leads and producers building remote teams and fast prototyping pipelines.